Bing It On! The Side by Side Search Engine Blind Test

Bing It On! The Side by Side Search Engine Blind Test

Ah, Bing vs. Google – a battle that will probably never end. In the latest round, Bing recently rolled out a campaign they call “Bing it On!” which very similar to the “Pepsi Challenge” of the 80’s.

For those not in the know, the Pepsi Challenge was a taste test that took place in the US inside shopping centres and other public locations throughout. A Pepsi rep would set up a table with two blank cups – one with Pepsi, and one with Coca Cola. The rep would then get people to drink both cups and select which they prefered. The rep would then reveal which was which and the consensus was that Pepsi was the prefered choice by most Americans. The objective here was obviously to help Pepsi brand itself as the better cola. However, even with taste on Pepsi’s side, Coke is still the most popular choice by far the world over.

The “Bing it On!” campaign allows users to search for whatever keyword they wish (limited to 5 queries) and are then presented with two sets of results. They then must choose which results they feel are best and once the 5 queries have been completed, the user is given their results overall. Microsoft have recently announced that as a result of this test,“people preferred Bing web search results nearly 2:1 over Google in blind comparison tests”.

This is not the first time Bing has challenged users to make the switch from Google. In 2010 I wrote an article detailing how Bing recruited 15 Google users and asked them to use Bing exclusively for one week. The results were interesting, with 10/15 Google users confirming they plan to permanently switch to Bing.

With a recent comScore press release detailing Bing’s market share at 15.9% (Google having 66.4%), Bing is continuing to attempt to capture more of the market from Google and insists that most of the users on Google aren’t using it because of it’s results, but rather because of habit.

Below is a video of the recent Bing campaign airing on television in the US.

At present, the only way to visit the Bing it On website is through a proxy if you’re in Australia as visiting the domain from here will just redirect you to the Bing homepage. How successful will the campaign be? Only time will tell if Bing can increase its market share for the fourth month in a row.

I personally have used Bing in the past for images only and tend to use Bing for once-off queries and manual rankings checks. What engine do you use? Let us know in the comments below!

We’ve been in the digital marketing field for over 18 years and worked with hundreds of Australian (and international) businesses to grow their web presence. Specialising in SEO, search ads (PPC), social media, content marketing, email marketing and conversion rate optimisation.

E-Web Marketing

We’ve been in the digital marketing field for over 18 years and worked with hundreds of Australian (and international) businesses to grow their web presence. Specialising in SEO, search ads (PPC), social media, content marketing, email marketing and conversion rate optimisation.